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An environmental group is questioning the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District’s plan to introduce sterile mosquitoes into the Keys to battle the spread of dengue fever.

The district has partnered with the England-based company Oxitec on the project and plans to introduce the mosquitoes sometime in 2012. The district is currently waiting on federal and state approval to test the technology, Executive Director Michael Doyle said.

The Keys would be the first community in the United States to test the technology.

The agency is targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquito because it is the species that is known to transmit dengue fever, a virus that hit Key West in 2009 and stayed around through 2010. There were no documented cases in 2011, according to the Monroe County Health Department.

The genetically engineered mosquitoes would be bred in a lab until adulthood, after which the males would be released into the wild. In theory, the males, which don’t bite, would mate and then die off. The offspring would die early in life — in the late larvae or pupae stage — and the mosquito population in a given area would theoretically be suppressed.

The district and Oxitec intend to release 5,000 to 10,000 genetically engineered mosquitoes during a two-week period and release them into an undisclosed 36-square-acre block near the Key West Cemetery, where the first case of dengue was reported. The initial trial is expected to last about two months. The mosquitoes will be dusted with a fluorescent powder for identification purposes and then trapped to see how far they are flying